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The halls were an uncomfortable blue. Usually it brought Lance comfort; the dim blue of the walls of the Castle of Lions. But the atmosphere was uncomfortable now.
Like a favorite coat that no longer looked good on you. Or having a sudden allergic reaction to water. It wasn't right.
Nothing felt right.
He had broken off from everyone else to follow Keith down to the foyer. Not following too closely behind, but just enough for Keith to take notice of his proximity with a glance behind him.
Without a word, Keith stopped walking and turned towards him, his right foot still pointing back. “What.”
If he was purely honest with himself, Lance didn't have a plan on what to do or say if Keith had stopped to address him. He just hoped Keith would just let him walk the other to the front door.
“Are you really leaving?” Lance heard himself ask.
Keith’s dark eyes flitted to the floor, and he spun on his left foot to turn away. “That's what's happening. Did you come to walk me out?”
“Uh, sort of. I just wanted to know if you were leaving because of me.” Lance began. “I mean, what I'm saying is-”
“It's not for you.”
“Huh?”
Keith’s back went silent. The discomfort in the air became staler and thicker.
“What do you mean?”
Keith twisted around to face Lance again, a more sincere look in his face. “I'm doing this for me. I'm not meant to be the Black Paladin. You should know better than anyone else,” his face fell to the floor a bit “after all, you had the front row seat.”
Lance stepped forward to close the gap between them, but not too close. He didn't want to scare the other off. It was like talking to a flighty creature that needed reassurance. Keith had always been like that, he noticed. Since the very beginning.
“Listen man, everyone makes mistakes, no one's perfect straight out of the box. Nothing works that way. It was the same way for us.” He tried.
Keith’s shoulders bristled. “Why are you doing this?! We already said our goodbyes but you just had to follow me!”
“Dude, why are you yelling!?” Lance snapped back. “I'm trying to find out why you're leaving us with a dumb reason! You always do things for dumb reasons!”
“Well if I'm so dumb then I should leave the team!” Keith yelled, the furrow heavy in his eyebrows.
It was always mostly Lance at the receiving end of them. He wondered how long it was going to be before they could argue like this again. In the same star system. On the same ship. In person.
Lance growled, his patience at the end of the last centimeter. Without thinking, he swooped forward to take Keith by the shoulders of his stupid Blade suit to share an enraged stare with him.
Then he kissed him.
What was he doing. What is happening. What the heck, this was Not Planned. This wasn't his intention. But alas, he was kissing Keith, and the other was frozen in a very unKeith-like way. The way a cobra bit a mouse to paralyze it, or if he had used Blue’s freeze ray at a really tiny setting.
Lance felt his face get pushed away roughly, and Keith was looking straight at him, touching his mouth like it stung or burned. His eyes wide and his cheeks a pink Lance felt he was imagining. Keith didn't ever blush. Ever. So why...?
The furrowed brow was back.
"Why are you always doing that?!” Keith roared, his stance saying he was ready to pounce but the flush in his cheeks said “kiss me again”.
“Wha-? I've never kissed you before!” Lance said, with an incredulous shrug of his hands and arms.
“ Ugh, no! You make things harder! More complicated!” Keith explained, then continued walking down the hallway. “I'm leaving. Don't follow me.”
He turned a final time to look at Lance, with a sullen expression. The pink in his face was gone.
“This conversation never happened.”
With a lift of his hood, his Blade mask assembled, and he disappeared behind a turn in the hall.
Lance stood there, counting the footsteps he heard before he couldn't hear them anymore. He should have ignored what Keith said and chased after him, demanding more answers. It wouldn't be the first time.
But Lance only continued counting what he had left of being near Keith.